THE BIG STORY

Pittsburgh athletic director Jeff Long acknowledged Saturday that he flew to Fayetteville a day earlier to speak with Arkansas officials about the school’s athletic director position.

Sources at Arkansas told Hawgs Illustrated publisher Clay Henry on Saturday that Long has been offered the job and is expected to accept it.

“I was asked by the University of Arkansas to come and talk to them about the director of athletics position,” Long told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday afternoon. “I discussed it with (Pitt) Chancellor (Mark) Nordenberg, so I did go to Fayetteville yesterday (last Friday) and discuss the job with the people at Arkansas.”

A private plane registered to Arkansas’ Board of Trustees flew to Pittsburgh on Friday morning to pick up Long and his wife, Fanny. The plane landed at Drake Field around 10 a.m. Friday.

White has been heading the search to find a new athletic director since Frank Broyles announced in February that he was retiring at the end of the year. Long is the first candidate to be seen visiting Fayetteville.

A look at the league:

ALABAMA

Receiver Keith Brown and middle linebacker Prince Hall played in Saturday’s 24-10 win over Vanderbilt, but did not start a week after being suspended for the Western Carolina game. Brown entered the game with 1:21 remaining in the first quarter. He did not catch a pass, dropped one, but consistently played the rest of the way. Hall’s role after coming on at the 8:13 mark of the second period was more limited. He had one tackle. . .With a game-high 67 receiving yards Saturday, Tide receiver DJ Hall topped 2,000 in his career. Hall now has 2,037 yards and 134 catches in 38 games. He is only 34 yards shy of breaking Ozzie Newsome’s all-time UA receiving record of 2,070 yards.

ARKANSAS

The Razorbacks worked hard in their off-week on improving their pass rush, after failing to sack Troy quarterback Troy quarterback Omar Haugabook in a season-opening win on Sept. 1. The Hogs could get a big boost this week, when senior Marcus Harrison could return from his suspension and play at Alabama.
Harrison was named Arkansas’ starting left defensive end at the end of preseason practice. But he was suspended indefinitely following his arrest Aug. 24 on a felony drug charge and several misdemeanors.
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said last week that Harrison has rejoined the team, but he added that he hasn’t decided on whether the senior will be in the lineup against the Crimson Tide. Nutt said Harrison was “probably available” for this week.

AUBURN

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said it’s time to make some changes on offense following his team’s 26-23 overtime loss to South Florida on Saturday. “Obviously, we need to make some changes, and we will do that,” Tuberville said. “That’s what we need to do as coaches. It is just unfortunate that we didn’t take advantage of some opportunities. That’s just the way it goes. You have to give them credit. They played a very good game defensively. They took advantage of opportunities and had good team speed. We just need to move the ball better than that and score more points. We figured we needed to score 30 points to win.”. . .Safety Aairon Savage and linebacker Tray Blackmon missed the South Florida game with ankle injuries, and they are questionable for Saturday’s contest against Mississippi State. Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite (hamstring) and linebacker Merrill Johnson (shoulder) left the game with injuries.

FLORIDA

Senior receiver Andre Caldwell suffered a knee injury during the second half of the Gators 59-31 win over Troy and will undergo an MRI. Coach Urban Meyer said he was told the injury is not believed to be serious. “Bubba has an MCL,” Meyer said. “He’s going for an MRI.” Caldwell wasn’t the only Florida playmaker injured Saturday. Sophomore Brandon James suffered a sprained ankle in the second half, and Jarred Fayson was shaken up late in the third quarter after being slammed to the turf by a Troy defender after taking an option pitch from Tim Tebow. Fayson later returned to the game. Sophomore Percy Harvin, who has been battling tendonitis in his Achilles’, now has soreness in his knee. If James misses Saturday’s game, Meyer said sophomore wide receiver Jarred Fayson would return kickoffs and punts ahead of true freshman Chris Rainey, who lost a fumble on a second-half kickoff return against Troy. “Chris has to take care of the football before he touches the ball,” Meyer said. … Reserve safety Bryan Thomas also sprained a knee against Troy and his status is uncertain for Saturday’s game.

GEORGIA

Georgia’s most experienced defensive back, Kelin Johnson, missed the entire second half of Saturday’s 16-12 loss to South Carolina because of a rib injury. . .Georgia also lost one of its veteran receivers for the game in the first quarter when A.J. Bryant was hurt while trying to execute a catch-and-throw gadget play that ended with a heavily pressured Bryant slinging the ball into the air. Early reports said the senior injured his left knee. Bryant has fought hamstring and foot injuries throughout his Georgia career. Bryant was limping after the game with his knee heavily wrapped. Georgia coach Mark Richt said that the injury is to the cartilage but is not serious. . .Georgia’s inexperienced offensive line was exposed early against Carolina, and quarterback Matthew Stafford. “We weren’t clicking for sure,” said Stafford, who completed 19 of a career-high 44 passes for 213 yards and an interception. “I was missing them and it’s on me to make plays, put it there and I didn’t do it.” Georgia failed to score a touchdown for the first time since a 14-9 loss over South Carolina on Sept. 8, 2001.

KENTUCKY

After Kentucky sleepwalked through the first half Saturday against Kent State, the ‘Cats won 56-20 after scoring 21 straight points, Coach Rich Brooks went off at halftime. When asked whether it was a 10 on the Richter scale, senior linebacker Wesley Woodyard told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “It was about a 12.”
“I guess you guys were right all week,” Brooks said to the media following the game. “Maybe we weren’t ready to play. Maybe we were looking ahead. Thank goodness we got their attention. I obviously failed to do that going into the game. I tried, but I wasn’t heard. At halftime, they heard me loud and clear. That’s the good news. Maybe I need to rant and rave more often.”. ..UK lost two defensive tackles vs. Kent State. Starter Myron Pryor left on the first series with a strained pectoral muscle, and backup Ricky Lumpkin left in the third quarter with a hip injury. Brooks said he didn’t know the extent of Lumpkin’s injury but hoped
LSU

LSU quarterback Matt Flynn will be held out of practice today as a precaution with what is believed to be a minor ankle injury suffered in the No. 2 Tigers’ 48-7 win over No. 9 Virginia Tech Saturday night. He is expected to play in Saturday’s 7 p.m. home game against Middle Tennessee, but LSU coach Les Miles did not sound completely definite about that. “We’re looking at him, but I think he can play,” Miles said. “We’ll see how it goes. We’ll take some time and let him relax and bring him back on Tuesday and see how it goes.” It was unclear to Miles on what play Flynn hurt his ankle. Flynn completed 17 of 27 passes for 217 yards. He rotated with backup Ryan Perrilloux, but that was scripted. “I can tell you he (Flynn) could’ve finished the game if it was a game we needed him to play in,” Miles said. . .LSU’s victory was its second in only three top 10 non-conference games in LSU’s history. The other was a 10-0 victory in 1959 by No. 1 LSU over No. 9 TCU. In 1987, the fourth-ranked Tigers tied seventh-ranked Ohio State, 13-13.

OLE MISS

Ole Miss running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for a career-high 33 times and career-best 226 yards in Saturday’s 38-25 loss to Missouri. It was the fifth-best rushing performance in school history. Green-Ellis said Ole Miss’ passing offense and the offensive line helped him. Green averaged 6.8 yards per carry against Mizzou. “I didn’t have to make a lot of guys miss,” Green-Ellis said.

MISS. STATE

Mississippi State running back Anthony Dixon also had a big game in Saturday’s 38-17 win over Tulane, running for 131 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns, both career highs. “I just felt like if I kept on pounding, sooner or later it’d break open,” Dixon said. . .Linebacker Jamon Hughes did not return to Saturday’s game after sustaining a first-half shoulder bruise. Defensive back Jasper O’Quinn left the Superdome on crutches after suffering a quad injury while covering a punt early in the fourth quarter.

SOUTH CAROLINA

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was the least surprised guy in Sanford Stadium on Saturday when Carolina beat Georgia, 16-12. “We came here thinking we matched up with Georgia pretty good. “We thought we could play defense like we played tonight, last week (against Louisiana-Lafayette) we didn’t do it very well,” said Spurrier, whose team was a four-point underdog. “But this was not a shock to us to win this game. All you people that watch point spreads, you know it wasn’t any big spread. If you listen to (ESPN analyst Lee) Corso and them guys, you might think it was supposed to be a lopsided game. But this was two even teams.”. . .USC is ranked among the top 21 Division I-A teams in three defensive categories: scoring defense (17th at 13 points a game), passing defense (21st at 138 yards a game) and pass efficiency defense (15th).

TENNESSEE

Just one week after he was knocked out of the Cal game with a scary head injury, Vols senior defensive end Xavier Mitchell started in Saturday’s 39-19 win over Southern Mississippi and was credited with one solo tackle, three assists and two quarterback hurries. Mitchell said he felt no ill effects from the concussion that occurred in the fourth quarter of the Cal game. “I felt fine. I didn’t have any problems — no headache or anything,” he said. Mitchell did not participate in full-speed work at practice until Wednesday, which he said contributed to a slow start against Southern Miss. “That kind of showed in my play in the first half,” he said. “It took me awhile to get going at full speed.”. . .Punter Britton Colquitt did not play Saturday and continues to be bothered by a quadriceps injury he suffered during the preseason. Vols; coach Phillip Fulmer expects him back for Saturday’s game at Florida. Chad Cunningham punted three times for 40.3 yards against Southern Miss.

VANDERBILT

Receiver Earl Bennett had just four catches for 52 yards in Saturday’s 24-10 loss to Alabama. But Bennett still inched up the Vanderbilt and Southeastern Conference record books. With 2,297 career receiving yards, the junior moved ahead of Martin Cox (2,275, 1975-78) into third place on the Vanderbilt all-time list. He also moved into 13th place on the SEC career receptions list with 178 catches, ahead of Tennessee’s Marcus Nash (177, 1994-97).. . .Backup quartetrback Mackenzi Adams’ 13 completions in relief of starter Chris Nickson comprised a career high for the sophomore. Adams, who entered the game early in the third quarter, saw his most extensive action since going 10-for-20 for 176 yards last year at Ole Miss. Against Alabama, Adams attempted 23 passes and finished with 108 yards.